This invention relates to panels and is concerned especially with panels of a decorative or other form incorporating one or more viewable images.
It is known from GB-A-2207089 and GB-A-2252079 to provide architectural and other panels that present a coloured background viewable through a glass or other transparent or translucent surface. The present invention has as one of its objects the extension of this to enable one or more images to be similarly presented.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a panel having a transparent or translucent facing that carries on its back surface a transparent fused coating of thermosetting material, wherein one or more printed images are borne by the back surface of the transparent coating and the one or more images on this surface are covered by a further fused coating of thermosetting material.
The transparent and further coatings may both be of fused polyester or other powder-coating material, and the further coating may contain pigmentation.
According to another aspect of the invention there is provided a method of manufacturing a panel, wherein a thermosetting powder-coating material which is deposited on the back surface of a transparent or translucent facing of the panel, is heated to form a partly-cured transparent coating on said back surface, one or more images are printed on the back surface of the partly-cured transparent coating, further thermosetting powder material is deposited to cover the one or more printed images, and heat is applied both to complete curing of the transparent coating and fuse the further powder material into a coating bonded to the transparent coating.
The partly-cured transparent coating may be a transparent coating of thermosetting powder material cured to substantially 70% of its fully-cured condition.
The further thermosetting powder material may be a thermosetting powder-coating material and the heat applied to fuse the further powder material may cure this powder concurrently with completing cure of the transparent coating.
The one or more images may be printed in an ink having both ultra-violet and thermo-curing properties. In this case, ultra-violet light may be applied to harden the one or more printed images prior to the deposition of the further thermosetting powder material thereon. More especially, a colour-separation printing process may be used with ultra-violet light applied following each step of the process to harden the ink applied during that step.